bright the hawk's flight
by ShirouHokuto
Summary: A mononoke out of the past haunts the modern day. Written for Yuletide 2015; contains dysfunctional family dynamics and references to abusive behavior.


**Author's Note:** _My main assignment for Yuletide this year was Mononoke; I was nervous about it at first, but then a rewatch and the recipient's prompts really inspired me, and - I ended up writing 10k... Thank you, Nonesane, and I'm glad you liked the end result!_

* * *

 **bright the hawk's flight**

ー理（ことわり）ー

Still water, reflecting bare branches and a white, empty sky.

 _Stop! Stop! Stop!_

In the water swirl fish and nets, frozen in soundless eddies and currents. A splash of black feathers floats above, blown by a stopped wind.

 _Stop! Can't stop them. Can't stop them._

The only movement left in the world is red: red crawling across drifts of snow, red dripping _plink plink plink_ onto the still water, red seeping into grey stones. Red pouring out and out and out.

 _Can't stop them. Can't stop them. Have to stop them._

"I see. You are one who fancied that you understood something of us, are you not? Someone - learned. Useful, if only you had the time and the strength to act."

 _Have to stop them. Have to stop them. Have to stop them._

Ivory teeth and a flash of gold within a curl of smoke; a chime rings, slow and shivering. "Would it please you to understand more?"

 _Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes._

Wind and snow and water explode into sound, motion, light.

* * *

"Wow, check out that guy! Those clothes are really something else!"

"Is he cosplaying, maybe? Shouldn't he go somewhere else for that?"

"How old-fashioned..."

"But it's kind of cool-looking, too. Kayoko? Hey, Kayoko, what do you think?"

 _Sorry I can't make it today - have lots of fun even without me, okay? (´_ ヘ｀ _;)_

Kayoko glanced up from her phone and Ayumi's latest message. "Eh? Where? What guy?"

"Over there," Mika said, tilting her head in the right direction so her bell earrings jangled, "outside that cafe Ayumi likes so much - isn't he _wild_?"

In the crowd of drab winter uniforms and dark dresses and suits, the blue robe - it wasn't even a normal kimono, but belled out at the bottom - shone like a sunlit wave at the edge of a storm-darkened sea. And the man wearing it really did have wild pale hair, only partially tamed by a purple scarf wrapped around his head, and he was carrying a giant brown box on his back that had to weigh a ton. And he had geta on despite the cold - Aoi was right, totally old-fashioned.

"Or maybe he's in a band, I don't recognize that character," Hina said, still sounding doubtful. "There isn't really anywhere around here for one to play, though? And you'd think Emi would have said something if one was coming, you know how crazy she is about music. Plus it's kind of early to get dressed up for a gig, isn't it?"

The currents of the crowded sidewalks were sweeping them past the cafe, at least until Mika grabbed Kayoko's arm and started pushing her way back towards it. "C'mon, let's get something to eat here!" she said. "You know, so we can enjoy the view," and she nudged Kayoko with her elbow.

"Without Ayumi?" Aoi glanced between the man in the blue robe and Mika's grinning face, then scowled. "I'd rather just get crepes and go home. It's _cold_."

"Yeah, seriously," Hina said, with an exaggerated shudder.

"Aww, you know Ayumi won't mind us going here, even if she isn't with us - right, Kayo-chan?"

"Ugh, don't call me that! My name sounds too much like an old lady's already, Dad's the only one who can get away with it..." She looked down at her phone again - _have lots of fun even without me, okay?_ \- and closed the message. "Sure, they have really good coffee anyway."

They had to pass the man to get to the entrance. He was staring up at the line of little crow statues over the front window, his mouth moving - was he wearing purple lipstick? Maybe he really was in a band, and his guitar or whatever was in the box - but no sounds coming out. At least, none that Kayoko could hear over the general noise, and then it all cut off anyway once they went through the door.

They settled at a black-draped table and started flipping through menus printed with cartoon crows. Kayoko started to type a message for Ayumi - _cool guy at your fave place, wish you were here to see! have a pic_ \- but the man had already disappeared from sight. Mika was still moaning about it while they ordered; Kayoko deleted the message, asked the waitress for extra sugars and milk, and started a new one. _at your fave cafe! miss you super much, want me to bring you something?_ Ayumi lived two floors below her own family's apartment, it wouldn't be any trouble.

The reply buzzed in the middle of Aoi and Hina arguing over something going on with their track club. _No, thanks, don't worry about me! ´_ ▽ _` )_ ﾉ _Just have a good time in my place!_

"Ayumi again?" Mika asked, peering over Kayoko's shoulder. "'Just have a good time in my place' - wow, is her mom or somebody using her phone? That doesn't sound like her at all."

"Probably just trying to fool herself into feeling better," Aoi said, tucking a strand of her long, sleek hair back behind her ear.

Kayoko scowled down at the phone. "She's not like that! It's just - you guys don't know how she gets when she's really upset. She never wants people worrying about her or anything..."

"Sure, whatever."

"I bet seeing that wild guy would have cheered her right up for real," Mika said, and she sighed heavily. "He looked like the kind of mysterious weirdo she loves... Exactly the type to get her mind off those dead crows she was so mad about."

"At least the rest finally got the hint and stopped hanging around here."

"Aww, I always thought they were sort of cute," Hina said. "Like little mascots, but for the cafe instead of a team, you know?"

"Crows are _not_ cute. Kittens and puppies are cute. Doraemon is cute. Fuzzy baby owls are cute. Butterflies are -"

"We get the idea! You're such a fiend for cute things, who would guess?"

"Says the nerd. I saw you looking at those Pokemon charms yesterday, like you don't already have more than you can fit on your phone..."

Kayoko closed her eyes in annoyance, then opened them again to type, _okay, lemme know if you change your mind :3!_

* * *

"- late again! Wasting all your time with those silly girls, and when you _know_ Tomoaki needs your help! Well, if you think that I'm going to let you off - I don't care what you have a test in tomorrow, it's your brother who -"

 _Don't disrespect him._

Kayoko blinked, her mother's rant fading out. Auntie Chiyo's voice? Why would she remember that all of a sudden? She hadn't thought about Auntie Chiyo in ages. And what did that mean, _don't disrespect him_ \- Tomoaki hadn't even been born yet when Auntie Chiyo had died.

"- you listening to me?"

"Yes, Mom, sorry, I'll do it right away."

"Not yet! You have to help me with dinner first! Really, how did I end up with such a lazy daughter?"

 _Just lucky, I guess_ , Kayoko didn't say, but she was definitely thinking it. And texted it to Ayumi with the rest of her complaints when she got a second's break from chopping vegetables. Ugh. Why did she always have to help Tomoaki with his homework, anyway? She got better grades than him in everything except history - she should be the one going to cram school so she could get into a good college, she could totally do better even in history if she didn't have to spend all of her spare time on stupid Tomoaki. He was the lazy one, always making mistakes so she'd have to spend ages correcting them, and she wanted to go to college so _badly_ but Mom just wanted her to waste time with Tomoaki or chores instead, like that was more important than school... Talk about old-fashioned! Mom would have been happier living under the shogun and marrying a samurai, or something.

She was too tired to still be seething about it by the time she went to bed, but she couldn't sleep, either; she just kept turning over and over, trying to get comfortable while her brain wouldn't shut off. Auntie Chiyo - Great-Aunt Chiyo, actually, but she'd hated it the one time Kayoko had called her that - she'd always had lots of interesting stories. Mostly about her short career in acting, but there'd been some other ones, too. Hadn't she told one once about -

Her phone vibrated under her pillow. She pulled her blanket up over her head so the light wouldn't wake up Tomoaki and checked her mail.

 _I miss you super much, too. (´_ ヘ｀ _;) But right now, the way things are - I just can't yet, you know?_

 _yeah i get it_ , Kayoko typed back. _maybe soon though?_ Mika and Aoi and Hina were all fun in their own ways, but Ayumi had been her best friend since preschool; nothing was the same without her. And it had been so long, weeks, since they'd actually seen each other...

 _Maybe soon._

Kayoko was about to fall asleep for real when another message popped up: _If my mom were still around, I hope she'd be nicer and let you stay over lots, and tell your mom to back off..._

 _yeah me too. at least our dads are usually pretty cool, right?_

Outside the window there was a fluttering of wings. Pigeons having a late night scuffle, maybe, but Kayoko snuggled a little deeper under her blanket anyway.

 _... yeah. Good night._

 _night :3!_

ー真（まこと）ー

"He's back, he's back!" Mika yanked on Kayoko's sleeve.

"I swear, you're more interested in him than even Ayumi would be," Aoi said. "Get a grip, would you?"

Kayoko typed the last bit of another message to Ayumi - _bring you coffee?_ \- and looked. Sure enough, the man in the blue robe was outside the cafe again. He wasn't staring at the crow statues anymore, though; he'd spread a blanket over the sidewalk next to the alley, put his box on it, and was sitting next to the box with some little bottles and weird statues and funky balancing toys with bells dangling from their arms laid out in front of him.

"Boo, I guess he's just a salesman, after all," Hina said, and she zipped her Seibu Lions jacket practically up to her nose so her short hair fluffed out over the collar. "All those fancy clothes, just to sell junk... What a pity. With those looks, he'd be good at cosplay, I bet!"

"Nerd."

"What do you mean, junk? It looks like cool stuff to me. Maybe he's really a fortune-teller - ooh, I hope so, I want him to tell my fortune!" Mika darted over to the cafe, dragging Kayoko and the others with her. "Hi, mister! You're new around here, right? What kind of stuff do you have? Do you tell fortunes or anything?"

"Don't _encourage_ him, he's probably a hobo," Aoi said, not very quietly.

The man didn't get offended; he just said, "I am but a simple medicine seller." Even the way he spoke was sort of old-fashioned, like someone out of those historical dramas Mom loved.

"Ooh, really? What kinds of medicine? Like, love potions and stuff?" Mika giggled and leaned over to get a better look at the junk.

"I didn't know people like that were even still around," Hina said. "I guess it's kind of neat, preserving old traditions and remedies... It still doesn't seem like a good place to set up, though."

"I have many kinds," the medicine seller said. He waved one long-nailed hand over the blanket and his wares and looked up at them through pale bangs; his blue eyes landed on Kayoko, and her cheeks heated up at the directness of his gaze. Who did he think he was, looking at her like that? Like he was looking right through her skin to her heart. "But where is the fifth who should walk always among you?"

"Eh? How did you know about Ayumi?" Mika said, as Hina and Aoi made hushing motions at her. "Are you sure you're not a fortune-teller?"

Kayoko's phone buzzed. _Really, I don't need anything, but are you okay? I just got the worst premonition! (_ ﾟﾛﾟ _)_

"A fortunate guess."

 _yeah i'm fine_ , but her fingers were trembling on the buttons and Auntie Chiyo's voice creaked in her ears. _Don't disrespect a medicine seller_ , she'd said that once, hadn't she? Or something about a medicine seller, anyway. Telling a story, but which one? She couldn't remember and she really, really wanted to remember _right now_...

"It may be that I have something to aid her," the medicine seller suggested.

"Mmm - probably not," Mika said. "I mean, she's out of the hospital already and she wasn't exactly sick, it was some kind of accident with boiling -"

"Seriously, shut up!" Aoi hissed. "Why do you have to be such a gossip all the time? It's none of his business!"

"A small charm, perhaps? To speed her recovery." The medicine seller produced a slip of paper out of his giant sleeves and offered it for inspection.

"Hmmmmm - how much does it cost?"

"A kiss," and when Mika jumped back, red-faced, the medicine seller's mouth curled up at the corners - or maybe it was just the way his lipstick was painted on. "A small jest. Five hundred yen."

"Yikes, just for that? It's not even a cute charm!"

 _I mean it! I really have the worst feeling right now!_

 _it's okay honest talk to you soon_

"Yeah, that's a total rip-off," Hina said, shivering. "Let's just get something to eat already, my ears are going to fall off!"

"Not here, though. This place is too gloomy. I want crepes, I haven't had them in a week."

"Oh, fine - sorry, mister! Maybe another time?"

"I'll take it," Kayoko said, her heart stuttering in her throat, and she fumbled for her purse. What the heck was she doing? At least she had plenty of money - Mom yelled a lot, but never cut off her allowance. Five hundred yen for a piece of paper, though, even if it was a charm for Ayumi...

One of the balancing toys tipped in her direction. "Oh," said the medicine seller, "I see. In that case - there is no price."

"Eh? Then how come it was so expensive for me, huh? I guess _someone_ 's got a crush."

"What? I can't just take it -"

But the medicine seller was already pressing the charm into her shaking hands, still looking into her eyes. "Should it prove ineffective," he said, "return to me."

"Um - all right," Kayoko said. "If you're sure..." The paper was covered in old-fashioned calligraphy she couldn't read, surrounding an eye-shaped symbol with a stare almost as creepy as the medicine seller's. "What's it supposed to do, exactly?"

"It keeps watch."

"Oh, and that's not a weird thing to say at all - c'mon, Kayoko, let's go already! Hina-chan's right, it's freezing out here."

"Yeah, okay..." She slipped the charm into the pocket of her red coat, then bowed to the medicine seller. "Ah, thank you very much!" He might be creepy, but he had given her the charm for free.

"And good fortune to you," he said, or something like that; she couldn't hear him properly with Mika pulling her away to catch up with Hina and Aoi, already chattering about whether they should try somewhere new or go to Aoi's favorite place for crepes.

* * *

That evening, Kayoko ran through a flock of crows hanging out at the apartment building's base, and they startled into cawing flight as she leaped up the outside stairs to Ayumi's apartment.

 _Thunk thunk._ "Ayumi?" _Thunk thunk thunk._ "A-yu-mi!" _Thunk thunk._ "Mr. Harada? Is anyone home? I brought something for Ayumi..."

But from the other side of the door came only silence, not even a shuffle of feet or rustle of clothing. Why was it so quiet in there lately?

"Ayumi, please, I know you have to be in there - please let me in? Or just open the door so I can see you? I miss you so much, and I got you a present today... Please, please open up!"

Nothing, except crows croaking at each other down below, and it was already past Mom's deadline. "I'm going to slip it under the door, okay?" Kayoko said, and she crouched down to push the paper charm through the slim gap between door and threshold. "It's just a charm, but I thought you'd like it, maybe... You can text me later, or give it back to me whenever if it turns out you don't like it. Um. I guess that's it, I have to go home now or Mom's gonna kill me. Please text me soon!"

She went up the next two flights of stairs more slowly and let herself into her family's apartment. Mom was hovering at the door to wait for her, of course, but before she could start yelling, Kayoko said, "Mom, do you remember Auntie Chiyo telling any stories about medicine sellers?"

"About medicine - that old bat," Mom muttered. "No, but she always was full of nonsense stories! I'm sure she made half of them up. You'd have to ask your father - she was his aunt, after all." Kayoko waited for the usual rant about lateness and laziness to start; instead Mom peered at her and said, "Are you feeling sick? You look like you're going to throw up."

Ugh, did she have to put it like that? "No - I'm just tired. It's been a really long week..."

"Hm." Mom crossed her arms. "Well, Tomoaki's not home from cram school yet anyway. I can manage dinner myself tonight, go take a nap or something."

Kayoko didn't dare question the unexpected generosity, but kicked her shoes off and lay down in the living room near the kotatsu. Her head was sort of spinny, like she hadn't been eating enough even though she'd had stuffed crepes with the others. Maybe a nap would be good for her, or at least take her mind off the medicine seller and his weird staring charm...

"Kayo?"

She started awake, her heart pounding. "Dad?"

"You really were asleep, weren't you?" her father said, sitting down next to her and pulling the kotatsu's blanket over his legs. He had a cup of tea in one hand, and steam rose from it in small, faint clouds. "Your mother hasn't been working you too hard, has she?"

"No..." She rolled over so she could sit up and tried to blink grit out of her eyes. She'd been dreaming about something, hadn't she? Something with black feathers, or teeth, or - no, it was no good, her dreams never stuck with her, not even the creepy ones.

"She told me you were asking about Aunt Chiyo, too. What brought that on?"

"Um, I don't know," Kayoko said. "No reason, I guess, but it's sort of bugging me that I can't remember this story... Did she ever tell us one about a medicine seller?"

"A medicine seller, huh... That does ring a bell." He took a slow sip of his tea. "It was a while ago, I'm surprised you remember it at all. I remember her telling me a story about a medicine seller once when I was a kid, one New Year's, and there were a couple her grandmother had told her, but I think when she told you that one, it was summer..."

* * *

The water laughs, running clear.

"It was an accident, honestly! I swear!"

"- never meant to -"

"- accident."

"- educated guy talking all this crazy shit, who'd believe it?"

"We killed him, someone like -"

"Just an accident."

"- got a right to eat, don't we? And the damn things were taking all the -"

"They were slippery, those rocks, with the ice and the snow -"

"An accident?"

"We didn't mean to, not so hard -"

"- blame us? We were just defending -"

"An accident. Yeah. That's what it was, an accident."

The water laughs, running red.

* * *

White light beats down hot and bright on the park's green grass, the trees' shade dappled and ever-shifting with the breeze. "That's enough sun for now - come on back here, you two!" a cracked but cheerful voice calls from the soft bank under the trees, and two little girls come running: one in a red dress with her hair in two puffy braids, one all in blue with loose, shining black hair flying out behind her.

"Ah, look how cute you both are," the old woman says, "just like me when I was a little girl. Watch out, or you'll grow up to be actresses like me, too!"

"No way!" The girl in blue pouts. "I'm gonna be a detective! And solve lots of mysteries and help people!"

"Oh? Well, that's also pretty cool, Ayumi-chan. Reminds me of a story..." The old woman pats the grass beside her. "Sit, sit! Did I ever tell you I was involved in a murder case once?"

"No!" the girls exclaim in fascinated unison, and they flop down together next to the old woman. "Tell us, Auntie Chiyo!"

"It's totally true! It was a long time ago, even before I started acting, while I was still a waitress. I was only a witness, of course, but it was still pretty scary. There was a young journalist who'd uncovered a huge scandal -" She spreads her arms out wide, implicating the entire city in the ancient corruption. "- but her boss was secretly part of it, and he tricked her into giving him the story and then shoved her off a bridge. Right onto the train tracks, just before a train came along, and then he tried to pass it off as a suicide! Oh, it was awful, just awful, but the truth came out eventually, about her death and the scandal..."

The girls shudder at the same time, twining their fingers together; Chiyo runs one hand over her dry lips, as if to wipe away some old itch.

"Did a detective figure it all out?" Ayumi asks. "Cool!"

"You know, that's the funny thing about the whole case. There was a detective, and I know he must have done lots of the work - he interviewed me twice, because she used to come to the cafe where I worked, that journalist - but whenever I think about that time, I remember someone else who got to the truth first."

"Who was it?" asks the girl in red.

"Well - he said he was a medicine seller..."

* * *

The wind mutters through branches bent under a dark weight.

"They killed him!"

"He was trying to help -"

"- help us, and they killed -"

"- killed him!"

"- so hungry, and he tried to protect -"

"But we just flew -"

"- flew away like cowards, left him for -"

"- cowards. We have to find -"

"- find him."

"Find him and -"

"But someone took him."

"So we'll find another -"

"- another one and help them."

"- help them, yes."

"We'll help them. No matter what it takes."

The wind mutters through branches springing up, light and unburdened.

* * *

Tomoaki was safely snoring away; Kayoko pulled the blanket over her head again and snuck her phone out. _did you find the charm yet?_ she typed.

 _What charm? I didn't find anything. (´_ ー｀ _)_

 _what?! no way! i stuck it right under your door! did your dad take it or something?_ Ayumi's father wasn't really the superstitious type, but he could have mistaken it for trash, if he'd come home and found it before she did.

 _... maybe. Anyway, I don't really need something like that now. It's late, you should go to sleep!_

 _fell asleep earlier and now i can't, oops_

Kayoko could practically hear Ayumi's exasperated sigh through the phone. _Oh, fine! But you'd better not complain to me about being tired tomorrow!_ （￣へ￣）

 _i won't, i won't!_

 _i just wish i could see you_

 _I know. I miss you, too - but I'm not ready yet..._

 _it's not like my feelings are going to change just because -_ The screen blurred, and she rubbed her eyes so she could finish typing. _\- just because of an accident! you're still my best friend no matter what!_

No answer. The screen started to go dark and she hit a random button to keep it awake. No answer. A second time, then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth; still no answer. She curled up under the blanket, gripping the phone tightly so she couldn't miss a reply if it came, and shut her eyes.

Why hadn't she just gone with Ayumi that night to help her investigate? If she had been there, maybe there wouldn't have been an accident. Or she could have done something to stop it. Or she would have gotten hurt, too, but at least then they could have gone through it together, wouldn't have spent weeks apart without a single glimpse of each other. She was the worst friend. She should have gone with Ayumi. If only she'd been there...

* * *

Morning dawned cold, bright, and busy. Under Mom's orders, Kayoko had to vacuum, dust, sweep, and fold the laundry before she was finally free to go out. Aoi and Hina had track club stuff to do, and Mika had her sewing club; usually Ayumi and Kayoko had the afternoons to do whatever they wanted, but just like every day of the previous two weeks, when Kayoko knocked on the door, no one answered.

"Well - I'm going to go to your favorite place first," she called through the door. "I'll probably stay there a while, so you can meet me if you want."

Silence.

"See you later, I hope... I'm sorry about last night, I - I shouldn't have said anything. Please come meet me later, it's my treat!"

Silence.

"I'll get you another charm, too, if that guy is still there," Kayoko said, and she clomped down the stairs with her hands buried in her pockets, huffing into her scarf to keep her nose warm. She was such an idiot, bringing up the accident like that - if the medicine seller had moved on or gotten chased off, maybe she'd go to a real shrine and get a proper charm instead...

But as she reached the sidewalk and turned right to go to the cafe, something clacked behind her. She spun around, Ayumi's name on her lips, and the medicine seller's painted face looked down at her.

"Oh! You startled me," she said, and then smacked her forehead. "Well, of course you did! What are you doing here? Did you follow me?" Creepy, creepy, creepy - Aoi had been so right to be suspicious of him.

"No," he said; he held out his left hand palm-up with one finger extended. "I followed this," and a balancing toy appeared on the tip of his finger.

"How could you - never mind! I don't want to know!" She started to turn away - she'd said she would be at the cafe, in case Ayumi did come out at last, so she might as well go there - but the balancing toy tipped towards the apartment building, the bell ringing softly, and she couldn't take another step.

"Did your friend accept the charm?"

"Um - no - but I couldn't give it to her personally, I had to put it under the door, so I guess it got lost... She said she couldn't find it, anyway."

"I see," said the medicine seller.

"Look, what's the deal with you, anyway? Are you trying to - oh!" The balancing toy had hopped up into the air with a twitch of the medicine seller's finger and floated towards her; without thinking she reached to catch it, and it landed on her index finger to balance, still tilted towards the building. "Ah! What's it doing?"

"Oh? It seems that the scales like you. How surprising."

"Eh?" Another one popped up in the crook of her elbow, tipped itself towards the building and chimed. Then another on her left shoulder, another on her right shoulder, two more on her frozen hand as her stomach knotted up with nerves. "What does that mean, 'they like me?' What's going on?"

"They measure our distance from the mononoke."

"From the - what?" Oh no, oh no, she'd gotten mixed up with an actual crazy person, even Ayumi didn't ever think any of the weird things she was into investigating were really monsters. (But weeks with nothing but texts, not even allowed a hospital visit or bringing oranges or flowers, and no reason given. Didn't that mean something strange was going on?) "There's no such thing as -"

"How troublesome, these modern attitudes," the medicine seller said. "Well. Believe what you wish; it does not affect the existence of a mononoke, either way."

The point of a scale pricked the top of her head, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. "Seriously, you've got to be kidding me! Even if - even if they were real, why would there be a mononoke around here, anyway? There's no reason for something like that to happen here, it's just ridiculous! It - it has to be some kind of mistake!"

"A mistake?" Yet another scale appeared on the medicine seller's hand, and he waved it upward. Kayoko's eyes followed its arc as it landed on the outside railing of the floor above to join an entire row of the things lined up, all of them tilting inwards to point at -

To point at Ayumi's door.

"Ayumi," she breathed, and then she was scrambling back up the stairs, slipping on icy steps, flinging herself at the door, pounding on it with both hands. "Ayumi! Ayumi! I knew something was really wrong, I _knew_ it - Ayumi, let me in! Ayumi! I'm sorry I didn't go with you, I'm sorry, let me in, oh please let me in! Ayumi!"

 _Clack. Clack. Clack_ on the stairs; a cold hand fell on her shoulder, pulling her back.

She turned on the medicine seller, her hands still clenched into fists. "You! You're behind this, somehow, or you know something - is Ayumi in danger? What's going on? What's happening to Ayumi?"

"To your friend?" His eyebrows rose. "Shouldn't you know better than I?"

"I don't know anything about all this - this spooky stuff! I just want to help her if she's in trouble!"

"If so, perhaps we should enter to see for ourselves," and putting his hand on the doorknob, he turned it, and it opened as if unlocked.

Ayumi and her father's apartment was the same layout and size as the one belonging to Kayoko's family, even though it was just the two of them; Mr. Harada had a good job in a big company and could afford the rent for the extra space. The living room was clean and neat like usual - Ayumi kept all of her messy clippings and "evidence" for investigations in her room - but as Kayoko automatically worked her boots off, she kept looking at the walls. They looked strangely spotty, like they'd been splashed with ink. Who would be messing around with ink in Ayumi's living room?

She took a step inside and the ink splashes flickered into wide crimson eyes.

"Good; this room, at least, is warded," the medicine seller said, over Kayoko's panicked cry. "But what, I wonder, do the charms keep at bay?"

"Charms? You only gave me one, there's hundreds of them now! Where'd they all come from?"

The medicine seller ignored her and paced around the living room under the watchful glare of the charms - he hadn't even taken his geta off, and they clicked loudly on the floor. Some of the charms were darkening to black, the eyes closing, but the ones plastered on the outer walls of the bedrooms continued to stare, bright red and unblinking. He looked back at them, then set his giant box down, and several of the drawers flew open.

"Ayumi?" Kayoko called. "Ayumi, you're here, right? Sorry for just coming in, I - I was worried about you!" Which was kind of ridiculous, considering how quiet the apartment was - stupid medicine seller, getting her all worked up with his freaky scales and charms and mononoke talk, but then again, it was _so_ quiet... "Ayumi? Are you here?"

Her phone nearly jumped out of her pocket, buzzing furiously. She caught it and brought up the message:

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

 _GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT_

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The phone slipped out of her fingers and the screen shattered on the floor.

The medicine seller appeared to ignore that, too, and pulled a short sword in an elaborately carved, dark red sheath out of the box. "Even in this day and age," he said, "there are mononoke that I must cut free... But still I must first know its form, its truth, and its regret."

"I don't even know what you're talking about! It was just an accident, what happened to Ayumi! All this other stuff, you're the one bringing it up!"

"Oh? An accident?" said the medicine seller.

Kayoko swallowed. Tell him or not - they'd already broken into Ayumi's apartment, what difference could it make? "At that cafe where you were selling stuff - it's Ayumi's favorite, she likes that kind of thing, and there were these crows, she liked feeding them, she's always loved birds. They loved her, too, they'd come right up to her and bring her junk... But a new owner took over and some of the crows started turning up dead, and she was - she was really upset about it. She wants to be a detective, so she was going to investigate, to see if the new owner was poisoning them, and she asked me to come along -"

 _Ugh. It's so late already, I'm exhausted! I didn't even get my homework done because of Tomoaki, when am I supposed to finish it all... I'll get in so much trouble if I go out now, too. Who cares about some stupid birds, anyway? It's so embarrassing, the way she gets worked up about these "cases." When is she going to grow up and stop pretending? I'm so tired..._

"- but I didn't, and the owner caught her in the kitchen and, and there was still some boiling water left over from before it closed, I guess, and it hit her but it was an accident, everyone said it was just an accident! But her dad was so mad about it, I couldn't even visit her in the hospital, and she doesn't come to school and she won't let me in and it's been over two weeks and I don't know, I don't know anymore, I just want to see Ayumi and make sure she's really okay!"

The hilt of the sword had a face on it, an ugly little goblin face stuck in a wide grin, and suddenly its teeth rattled against each other. "Hmm," the medicine seller said, and he turned to face the two bedrooms with their rows of charmed eyes. "Which one is it, I wonder..." He held the sheathed sword out straight in front of him and moved it in a slow arc, from the door of one room to the other and back again. "Which and where?"

The sword stopped at the door to Mr. Harada's room, the goblin's teeth chattering even more loudly.

"Wh-what does that mean?" Kayoko asked. "The thing - the mononoke - is it in there?"

Without answering, the medicine seller stepped forward, lowered his sword, and flung open the door; and a thousand black wings exploded outward.

ー形（かたち）ー

Kayoko shrieked, covering her head with her arms - "Close it! Close it already!" - as wings beat furiously against her and claws caught in her hair and scarf.

A long moment later they stopped, and she cautiously peeked through her arms. The medicine seller hadn't shut the door after all, even though the crows had vanished; he was standing on the threshold of Mr. Harada's room with more charms fanned out in his hand. He sent them flying with a flick of his wrist and the charms multiplied into a storm that the room sucked up.

She tip-toed over to the medicine seller and whispered, "Is it safe now?"

"Judge for yourself," he said, stepping into the room and aside so he wasn't blocking the doorway.

"You're not trying to trick me, are you?" As if he'd tell her if he was - what a stupid thing to say, and of course he was giving her that look again, like he was staring into her soul. Well, he wasn't going to scare her off that easily, not when Ayumi needed her!

She took a bold step forward, looked inside, and screamed.

Mr. Harada's eyeless face kept grinning at her, silent and lipless and ragged with torn skin. A single crow tugged idly at something stringy in his neck, then cawed in frustration and took off to fly past her with lumbering wing-strokes before vanishing into thin air.

She turned and darted for the door, still screaming, and the medicine seller caught her again, saying, "It's safer to remain within the barrier, young lady."

"Like hell! What's safe, when Mr. Harada - Mr. Harada is - let me go! Let me go, I have to call Mom and Dad, the cops, someone! Mr. Harada's -" She struggled against his grip, and hot tears pricked at her eyes. "Let me _go_ , Mr. Harada is -!"

"Quite deceased, yes. Well, if you would care to join him..."

She wrenched her arm free and rounded on him. "What's wrong with you? How can you talk like that? Mr. Harada is _dead_! We need to get out of here and get real help!"

"The charms ought to keep the mononoke from these two rooms," said the medicine seller, "but should you step outside - that is the territory of the mononoke, now." He tucked the sword into his obi, knelt beside his box, and beckoned to her to sit down next to him. "Perhaps you could tell me more of this Mr. Harada, and the accident."

Kayoko bit her lip, looking towards the apartment door and at the rows of charms with their closed black eyes; then the floor and walls jumped, and she grabbed the box's top to steady herself. "Okay, now there's an earthquake! We can't just sit around and talk like nothing's wrong!"

"It's not an earthquake."

The charms all around the room blinked red as the walls shook again, and Kayoko's phone buzzed louder and louder, bouncing on the floor. She gripped the medicine box tighter until the tremor passed, and then her legs gave out, leaving her collapsed on her knees. "I don't understand," she said. "I don't understand what's going on, what you're up to, what happened to - and Ayumi -" She angrily rubbed away more tears trying to leak down her face.

"Please, tell me what you do know."

"About _what_?"

"You said that the father was angry."

"Well, yeah - it was kind of weird... He's always spoiled her, since her mom left them when Ayumi was little and he's so busy with work, and he never used to mind if she was out investigating stuff. He said at least she wasn't out with boys, although, um -" Her cheeks grew hot under the medicine seller's level gaze. "- a couple of times it was boys... It wasn't her fault, though, I'd beg her to cover for me, and it's not like we did anything bad! We'd just go play at an arcade or go for a walk or to a movie or something, I mean, we were only in middle school, and we never got caught, anyway. But once we started high school he got more strict about it, and I don't know why... She didn't let it stop her, though, she's really stubborn like that. I guess that's what he was so mad about when she got caught at that cafe, but I don't really know since I wasn't there and -"

The floor buckled under her and a hundred beaks stabbed at her legs, yanking at her skirt and socks and coat, dragging her down into darkness until the medicine seller grabbed her flailing arms and hauled her up.

He slapped a charm on the heaving floor and it stilled as more charms spread across the cracked surface. "Indeed, you weren't there," he said. "This may prove somewhat difficult..." And he began to look through the drawers of his box.

Kayoko clung to the other side of the box, catching her breath, and peeked over the top. The drawers overflowed with strange objects and little bottles and packets, but none of them seemed to be what the medicine seller was searching for. In one there was nothing but a long, thin pipe, which the medicine seller pulled out; the inside of the drawer was covered with an old-fashioned painting that caught her eye, of a masked man and a woman walking under plum blossoms. "Who are they?" she asked.

"Hm?"

"In that painting, there - are they anyone in particular?"

"Ah. That was an interesting incident," the medicine seller said, and he rolled the pipe between slender fingers. "My own nature, turning against me... Well. It made him happy, and she was free in the end. And as you may see, she still visits him, from time to time..." He set the pipe aside.

"Honestly, I can't understand anything you say!" Kayoko huffed. "I bet you're super unpopular with girls."

The medicine seller smiled and continued to go through the drawers.

"What are you looking for, anyway? Can I help? I'm really good at finding things, that's why Ayumi is always making me come with her on her investigations..." She rested her head on the box and sighed. Ayumi - she had to be all right, right? She'd been texting like normal until last night, she had to be okay, she just _had_ to be.

"Have there been any - incidents, here?"

"Like weird stuff happening? No - not really, just me not being able to see Ayumi, but that's not the kind of thing you're asking about, are you? At least, I haven't heard anyone talking about anything weird."

"Odd," the medicine seller murmured. "For such a powerful mononoke to affect only one person..."

"Well, sorry I didn't notice tengu or whatever hanging around! I had other things on my mind!" She stuck her tongue out at him, but he wasn't looking at her anyway. "Oh, what's your name? You never did say. Or ask for mine, actually! I'm Nomoto Kayoko, if you care. What about you?"

"My name? You're a very curious young lady, Miss Kayoko."

"That's - not actually an answer."

"Perceptive, as well."

"That's still not an answer!"

The medicine seller packed everything he had taken out except the sword back into the box's drawers and closed them before he stood. "As we cannot discover more without leaving," he said, "I fear we shall have to face the mononoke itself to learn what I need." The charms on the walls had all gone black, except for the ones on Ayumi's bedroom door; those were still red and wide-eyed. "Would you fetch the salt from the kitchen, please?"

"What? Why do I have to, huh?" Kayoko clung more tightly to the box. "You can get it yourself if you need it so badly!"

"I am a stranger to this home."

"Oh - right. Um. Is - is the floor safe, now?" It _looked_ safe - no movement, closed black eyes on the charms - but how could she know for sure?

The medicine seller just looked at her. Creep. She slid one foot along the floor carefully, and nothing snapped at her, so she went to the kitchen and got the container of salt from the cupboard next to the stove where Ayumi kept it. When she came back, the medicine seller was watching the bedroom door like a cat guarding a mouse-hole. She waved the salt in front of his face and said, "Okay, I got it! Now what do we do with it?"

"A second barrier," he said, and took the salt from her to pour it out in a circle around her.

"Mr. Harada's going to kill you for making such a mess," she said without thinking, then clamped a hand over her mouth. "I mean - oh, geez... Hey, don't you need any for yourself?" There was barely enough room for her in the circle of salt, if he tried to squeeze in with her it was going to be super uncomfortable.

He shook his head slightly and turned back to the door.

"Wait, that's pretty dangerous, isn't it? Are you sure you don't -"

He opened the door onto a dead blackness that shouted in a hundred voices "We found you! Found! You! Found you! You! Found you!" and caught him in scaled claws and yanked him inside the room so swiftly that the door slammed shut behind him.

* * *

Kayoko stared foolishly at the door, the charms closing their eyes, the half-open can rolling on the floor and trailing grains of salt. _Well, that didn't last long!_ half of her mind said, while the other half screamed and screamed against the silence beating in her ears. _Some expert he was! Now what?_

She couldn't stay in the circle forever, she'd starve - or if someone came looking for her, they'd get trapped, too. The salt container wasn't very far; if she could reach it, maybe she could make a kind of path to the outside door. The mononoke or whatever was stuck in Ayumi's room when the door was closed, right? Or at least not very interested in stuff outside it. If she could get to the front door, she might be able to escape...

And leave Ayumi with the monster that had killed her father. The medicine seller, too, even if he was creepy - he'd tried to help, probably, he didn't deserve to be left behind.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, chewing on her lower lip, and then she crouched down. If she stretched her arm out very slowly - yeah, she could just touch the salt container and roll it a little closer to her, and she grabbed it off the floor and clutched it to her chest. "Okay," she said, breathing hard, "okay, I did that and I'm not dead. Now I just have to keep going! Ayumi needs me!"

She stepped outside the circle of salt. Nothing tried to eat her or shake her around. Good so far.

The salt container was still at least two-thirds full, so she inched closer to Ayumi's door and poured out another circle around herself, just to be safe. The charms were black again; that had to be a good sign, didn't it? Maybe it meant the mononoke was asleep or something? She touched the door, and no reaction.

Right.

She grasped the doorknob and shut her eyes. The door opened smoothly and quietly, with no sound from the other side. Was that good or bad? She cracked her eyes, but all she could see was darkness. Geez... She opened her eyes wider.

Ayumi's room was blank. Not the black nothingness that had seized the medicine seller, not an empty room, just clean, unmarked paper-blankness. "Ayumi?" she said. "Um - Mr. Medicine Seller? ... mononoke?"

Dead silence.

"Well, fine, don't answer me! I'm coming in anyway!" She held the can of salt more tightly and stepped inside.

At first she couldn't see anything; it was like walking into a dense fog. She held up her free hand in front of her face and could barely make out the motion of her wriggling her fingers. Great. She took another step and her foot came down on something that crunched. She jumped as freezing liquid sank icy hooks into her foot - snow? She'd stepped in snow? What the hell! Why was there snow in Ayumi's room? At least she still had her coat on, but damn, if only she had her boots, too...

Another step, so her other foot could get soaking wet and cold. Ugh. A single black feather floated past her. "Ayumi? Ayumi, are you here? Mr. Medicine Seller? Are you all right?"

One more step. Two more feathers drifted by her on a frigid breeze, and where the hell was that coming from, exactly? "Mr. Medicine Seller? Ayumi? Ayu-"

The wind rose, blowing away the fog of blankness, and she stared into the round, shining black eyes of a crow towering over her. It was the size of a car. It was bigger than a car, it was the size of an elephant, it was staring right at her, how could it possibly fit into the room when it was so _huge_?

She didn't scream or drop the salt can, despite her chilled, trembling hands. She could barely keep breathing; just thinking too much seemed like a risky move. The crow cocked its enormous head at her, then bent it down to look at one of its gigantic feet, where the medicine seller lay pinned and still beneath dull talons.

"Oh geez," Kayoko said, her brain too locked up to say anything that wasn't ridiculous, apparently, "oh geez, oh _geez_." He was dead, wasn't he? Oh, she was so _stupid_ , to come in alone with nothing but salt to protect her, if that even worked at all.

The crow's beak opened, and a chorus of voices croaked out.

"- you at last."

"We found you!"

"- found you!"

"We looked for so long but we thought -"

" - dead, but now we've found -"

"- found you at last."

The medicine seller, with some effort, moved his head enough to look at Kayoko - oh, thank goodness, he was still alive. "Well. This is unexpected," he said.

"Eh? What's unexpected? Wait -" Heat suddenly flooded her frozen mind. "Did you seriously think I was just going to leave you and Ayumi in here with a monster? Geez! What kind of person do you think I am, anyway? You could at least say 'thank you for coming to find me,' you know!"

"So noisy."

"- noisy."

"What a noisy person," the crow said in its many voices.

"You're not exactly quiet yourself, either!" She raised the container of salt and shook it at the crow, riding the hot wave of anger. "I don't know who you are or what you're doing here or anything you're talking about, but you'd better let me see Ayumi right now! And let that guy go, too! Um - please!"

The crow clacked its enormous beak, and she jumped back; her left foot knocked against something hard. Then the crow's wings spread out wide, stirring the last traces of fog in swirls of white snowflakes and long black feathers, and when they folded again they revealed Ayumi's familiar room, walls papered with clippings and maps and photographs, and Ayumi huddled in one corner with a crow nestled in her arms and her long straight hair hanging over her face.

* * *

"Ayumi!" Kayoko threw herself forward with her arms stretched out. At last, at last, she'd finally found Ayumi and they could get out of here and -

"I told you to go away."

"Eh?" Kayoko stopped.

"I told you to get out of here," Ayumi said, still not looking up, and the crow she was holding ran its beak gently through her hair as more flocked around her. "Are you an idiot or something all of a sudden? Why are you still hanging around?"

"But - I came here to help you! I've missed you so much and I, I just wanted to help and now - is it something I -"

"I said get out!"

"Out! Get out! Get! Out! Out!" the crows cawed.

"Please, I only wanted to see you -"

" _Is this what you want to see_?"

Ayumi raised her head, tossing her hair back, and half of her pretty round face was gone, eaten by pale, pockmarked scar tissue, the eye clouded white and blindly staring. "It is, right?" Only one side of her mouth moved, the other too thickened by the scarring to open properly. "That's what you came in here for even when I told you to get out! So you could gawk at the freak! To see what my father did!"

"No, I - I didn't - your father did that? It was an accident - wasn't it?"

"An _accident_ ," Ayumi spat. "That's what he said, and that rotten cafe owner was too scared to speak up! Just an accident! It could have happened to anyone, but he did it to me!"

The crows hopped around Ayumi with their feathers puffed out and wings half-spread, chanting, "Out! Out! Get out! Get! Out!"

Kayoko stepped back. "But why - why would he do something like that? I mean, how could he -"

"Did you catch being stupid from your little brother? Figure it out yourself, for once!"

Feather-shadows flickered on the wall in human shapes, and echoes shouted:

 _How dare you sneak out when -_

 _\- just trying to protect them! What's wrong with -_

 _\- think you're going to leave like her? You're never going to leave me!_

Kayoko shut her eyes and tried to cover her ears, but the echoes only grew louder.

 _\- you doing? You can't keep me locked up, Kayoko won't let -_

 _\- teach you not to -_

 _No! No! Stop! Please, I won't -_

 _\- really think you'll ever leave? With a face like that? Don't make me laugh! You're never leaving this apartment again! You're mine forever now, so don't get -_

"Please! Ayumi, stop it! Stop it!"

Silence. Then Ayumi spoke again, furiously cold. "I did stop it. I stopped _him_. Well - they did, really," and her voice warmed. "They're such clever birds, and they've been so kind to me - they did just what I wanted, and I didn't even have to ask them. What good friends they are... They'll always be here for me, won't they?"

"We'll protect her," said the giant crow from somewhere on Kayoko's left, "as we wanted to protect you, at that time."

"Protect! Protect her! We'll protect her! Protect!" the smaller crows clamored, and Kayoko opened her eyes to see them cozying up to Ayumi like they were spoiled cats getting treats, and Ayumi stroking their heads. She took another step back and her foot landed on a hard, rectangular shape, covered in ridges and bumps... The medicine seller's sword?

"To think that I would meet this old regret again," the medicine seller said; Kayoko looked over at him, but he was still trapped under the giant crow's foot - how could that thing be that size in Ayumi's room? - and not even trying to escape. "This really has become a difficult situation..."

"Seriously, you're saying that now? Like everything wasn't crazy enough before?"

"It is no simple spirit; we face a crow-god of the north."

"Eh? You're kidding me, right? You said it was a mononoke!" Her fingers tightened on the half-forgotten can of salt. "That was bad enough, what are we supposed to do when it's a god, huh? Just pray to it or something? You can't really think we're supposed to fight a god, not with - with charms and superstitious junk!"

"And there is this," he said. "I do not know what may become of your friend, should I sever it from her."

"You don't _know_? You're the worst! If you didn't know what was going on why'd you have to come in and interfere in the first place? What kind of help are you?"

"Still so noisy."

"- noisy."

"She's annoying. We don't need -"

"- need that one."

"My lord," the medicine seller said, reaching up to place a hand on one of the giant crow's talons, and its head tilted away from Kayoko back to him. "Your kindness to the young lady does you credit, but you have lingered in this world too long. Please allow me to cut you free."

"Kuh. I don't think so!" Enormous wings flared out, hiding Ayumi from sight again, and the crow's foot pressed down harder on the medicine seller. "Not when we've found the one we want to protect at last!"

"We found her -"

"- found you, so we can -"

"- like we wanted to -"

"We'll protect her -"

"- her forever!"

" _Hey_!" Kayoko hauled her arm back and flung the salt at the giant crow's head. "Don't just talk like I'm not here at all, you jerk! And let that guy and Ayumi go!"

The can bounced off harmlessly and the crow turned its head to her, but she had already crouched to grab the sword from underfoot, and she held it up against the crow's unblinking stare. "Yeah, I bet you don't like this thing at all, do you?" she said, as it rattled in her shaking hands and the goblin face's teeth clattered together. "So you'd better let us all go right now! Or - or I'm going to use it!" She'd never been into sword sports, but it couldn't be that hard, could it? Just take it out of the case, then a swish and a slice... "So don't test me, you got that?"

"Miss Kayoko -"

The crow lifted its talons from the medicine seller and slammed them down in front of Kayoko. The room jumped and so did she, a shudder wracking her entire body, but she didn't let go of the sheathed sword.

The crow's beak clicked. "Insolent."

"Noisy."

"Annoying."

"Useless."

"So noisy."

"Get out of the way."

"Miss Kayoko!" The medicine seller's bright robe swooped in front of her, and a flurry of charms flew from his hand to stick the open beak shut. "You have done very well, to survive so far. Now - please return the sword to me."

She clutched the sword to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut. "No! You said you don't know what'll happen to Ayumi if you use it!"

"I do not. But I assure you that if I do not cut the mononoke free, you will die."

"I don't care what happens to me! It's my fault anyway!" Tears stung in her eyelashes, and her throat was getting all thick and swollen and hard to talk through. "Ayumi, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't notice your dad was getting so awful and I didn't go with you to help the crows and I was tired but I still should have been there for you, because you've always been there for me! And I don't care if you have a scar and I don't care if you want to be friends with crows instead, I'm glad they could help you when I didn't! I'm honestly glad!"

The bumps on the sword's sheath dug into her sweating palms.

"But I just want you to know I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry, from the bottom of my heart! If you're still mad at me, that's fine, you can do whatever you want, but please don't hurt anyone else, because that's not the kind of person you are! And I hope the crows really will protect you, because I don't want you to get hurt ever again, either! So please - Ayumi, please -"

She didn't know what to say anymore, what she was begging for, but soft and far away, Ayumi said, "Kayoko," and then a pair of cool hands covered her own.

"We have learned the form and the truth of this mononoke," said the medicine seller, "and the regret I know of old." Kayoko heard the goblin's teeth click once, twice, a third time. "The conditions to release the Sacred Sword are met. I pray you, return it to me and allow me to sever the mononoke."

"Not if it's going to hurt Ayumi!"

"It's all right, Kayoko," Ayumi said, her voice still far away. "You don't have to worry about me anymore..."

Her grip on the sword loosened, just a little, and the medicine seller slid it out of her hands. "Thank you for your aid," he said gravely. "I once knew someone who would, I think, be proud of your spirit... Now: release!"

"Release!" chirped a strange, creaky voice, and Kayoko blinked.

* * *

Blink.

The medicine seller fell backwards, the colors fading from his face, and a stranger wrapped in gold stood in his place between Kayoko and the crow, his arms bare and long hair flying wild like the energy crackling from the sword in his hand.

Blink.

"You! So you were the one who took him!"

"- took him, when we were going to -"

"We went back for him and you -"

"- protect him, but you -"

"You won't take her away from us!"

Blink.

The stranger and the sword struck like lightning across the room, and the chorus of crow-voices shrieked as feathers scattered.

Blink.

"- dare you!"

"How dare you!"

"Dare!"

"How dare you!"

"Your persistence is commendable, my lord," the stranger said with the medicine seller's voice, "but you should have returned home long ago and spared yourself such grief."

Blink.

"This regret - no longer has a place in the world."

"Then neither do -"

"- do you, foolish -"

"- neither do you!"

Blink.

Blinding light blazed through the air.

Blink.

And at the medicine seller's feet Ayumi lay curled and still in a drift of black feathers, her eyes closed; but her breath steamed in the cold air, and her unscarred eye and half of her upper lip were outlined in light blue, with three diamond teardrops suspended on her cheek.

* * *

Warm fingers trace a streak of red down his nose and circles beneath his eyes.

"Is there a meaning to this?" he asks. "A purpose?"

"You are my face now; I would like to have an interesting one."

"How vain of you," he says, and the other laughs.

"An appearance can be deceiving," he says, as bands of gold disappear from his bare arms, "but it can also show the truth - or become it. Let us display our nature, and allow others to draw their own conclusions as to our truth... And there is some strength in them, to guide and protect you when I am not released."

"How thoughtful of you."

The other's eyelids lower, pale lashes shading stark black eyes. "I shall have to rest, soon," he murmurs. "You took a great deal of energy to restore. And it has been such a long time since I rested..." His eyes close; he falls forward, ivory hair flowing loose behind him, and for a moment the arms of one who is no longer entirely a man hold weightless heat and light, a breath of smoke.

"Ssh. Rest as long as you wish. I will walk quiet paths and learn until we are needed."

"Indeed, I've found something good," the other sighs, and his mouth curves up as the last touches of gold fade from his skin; then heat and light are gone, leaving empty arms.

The sword clicks into its scabbard, and the medicine seller takes his first step into the world.


End file.
